Starting a 'Third Place'
An Adventure in Tabletop Gaming and Business
“I’m bored.”
“There’s nothing to do around here.”
“$%&*ing Boomers have destroyed all of our cultural institutions!”
Have you heard a lot of these complaints over the last few years? I know I have, and I’ve made some of them myself. There’s a growing realization that people of all ages have become deracinated, atomized, and friendless. Younger people especially say they feel lonely, socially inept, and aimless. They have no hobbies, but they’d like some. If only they had a place to go outside of their shoebox apartments where they had the space to do things and could meet people.
I’m about to see if they’re willing to put a little money where their mouths are.
I’m about to open a ‘Third Place.’ In fact, I just signed the lease a few days ago. The lease begins on my son’s birthday. I think that’s very auspicious, and in honor of him, we’re going to call it The Victor’s Spoils.
A Third Place is a place that’s neither Home nor Work. Ideally, it’s affordable, within easy walking or driving distance, and is a comfortable and relaxing place to meet up with your friends or to make friends with your neighbors. We used to have a lot of these—churches, private clubs, fraternal organizations, cozy cafes and local pubs—but now we don’t have as many, and the ones we have are usually noisy, soulless, corporate operations that would rather distract you with electronic billboards than let you socialize. And people have noticed the lack. In fact, it’s been a hot topic of discussion over the past few months.
The Victor’s Spoils will, of course, be focused on tabletop gaming: miniature and counter wargames, board games, and RPGs. Technically, it’s a retail location, because we will be selling miniatures and books and stuff, but really, it’s a place to play first and a store second. For $10 a day, you will have access to a large library of board games and RPG manuals, or you can rent a table to play wargames or RPGs, or several fully appointed tables for a large battle. While you’re there, you can lounge in comfortable chairs and drink as much coffee and water as you want.
Who is this for? There are lots of people who are interested in this hobby, but don’t have money or space for all of the resources that make it a great experience. For example, you might have an army, but no table to play it on. We’ll rent you one. Maybe you have space to play, but your gaming group is overflowing your spare bedroom, and you want to have a really big battle with 3-4 tables together. We’ll do that. Maybe you have an army, but no terrain: we’ll set up a table for you and decorate it to your specifications.
If you want a DM or referee, you can hire one here. If you’re brand new and don’t even have dice or tape measures, we’ll provide that. If you’re the only one with an army but you want to introduce your friends to it, you can bring yours and rent one of our armies to let your friends try it out.
Interested in trying out that $120 board game before you buy it, or want to check out classic editions of out of print RPGs for ideas? That’s what the game library is for. Need a space to paint your miniatures or build terrain? You can rent that and rummage through our bits boxes. And while you work, you buy some snacks, or bring in a pizza or some hoagies from the store down the street.
Maybe you don’t really feel like playing, or don’t have anyone to play with. Pull up a seat in our lounge and talk to other players over a coffee. Roll up a character while you wait, or flip through our collection of classic gaming magazines. Check out the directory of players looking for a game and add your own entry.
We’ll also have books, because we’re writers, but also because every real wargamer or RPG player loves to read. Our selection will be curated, focused on ripping adventure fiction, cracking fantasy yarns, and non-fiction about gaming-adjacent subjects, like how to make terrain, Osprey military history books, and books about the myth, the paranormal, and high strangeness brimming with adventure seeds for your RPG campaign.
I think you can see already that this offers much more than the ‘Friendly Local Game Store’ does. But it also offers a wholly different environment, one conducive to a good time. We will have a modest dress code, no profanity, blasphemy, or outrageous body odor allowed. You can feel safe bringing your wife or children here. No more loud and obnoxious louts ruining your recreation. The bathroom will be regularly cleaned.
Will we be successful? Who knows? But I want to make an honest go of it. I have been planning and saving for this venture for several years. In fact, since 2020, I have opened my house pretty much every weekend to a large and shifting group of TTRPG players and wargamers, young and old, of all experience levels. All of them have said they were looking for something like this.
For Those Who Want to Help
Of course, most of you reading this won’t be able to regularly patronize The Victor’s Spoils because you live far away. However, many of my long distance friends who I’ve consulted with about this have expressed interest in helping in some way, and perhaps you will, too. To make this easy, I’ve enabled the ‘Founding Member’ tier for Splendor of Fire and set it at $250. You can also join this tier for less than $200, as long as it’s above the yearly subscription for the substack.
If you subscribe at the $250 level, you will be awarded the title Marshal of the Empire. Your name and face, suitably dressed in AI generated military regalia, will be added to the wall of the gaming room, and you will be remembered in prayer at the Benediction every day we are open. You will also be entitled to a fully appointed gaming table and two free admissions, every month, as long as we are in business.
Yes, even if you don’t renew your subscription.
But for every year you renew your Marshal-tier subscription, you will be awarded a successively higher Patent of Nobility, up to the limit of Grand Duke/Duchess (or preferred equivalent).
If you subscribe at the $100-$249 level, you will be awarded the title General (or Admiral, if you prefer), and a similarly august, though less prestigious, picture will be added to our wall. We will likewise remember you in our daily Benediction. You will be entitled to reserve a fully appointed gaming table at no cost, once a month, while your subscription is active.
For subscriptions at the $50-99 level, you will be awarded an Officer’s Commission and your name will be added to our Honor Roll. We will likewise remember you in our Benedictions.
If you're not yet subscribed to Splendor of Fire, follow the link below. If you already are a free or paid subscriber, click the button on the top corner of the screen to upgrade your subscription level. Or, if you don’t want to use Substack at all, you can donate via Paypal. Please mark it as a gift so Paypal doesn’t charge us extra fees.
If you would like to help by other means, we will gladly accept donations of classic TTRPG books, wargames, miniatures, terrain pieces, or anything else that is suitable. But please contact me first. Such contributors will also be added to our Honor Roll.
These offers will only be available for a limited time. I hope you will take advantage of them.
For those who live near northeast Pennsylvania, I hope you’ll be regular visitors.
Stay tuned for more details!
Interesting, the rift I opened to your world just so happens to be in your general area. Perhaps in the near future, I'll have the resources to make the rift a little more stable, hopefully stable enough to fly my airship through!
This is the way game shops need to operate to stay open: you monetize the space itself. Get some regular game leagues going, cards especially, and you've got a "guaranteed" basic income stream. I like it. I play locally in a Blood Bowl league for 25 bucks a month, which basically means I can come in whenever and play Blood Bowl. In practice I've never been in more than twice a week, because real life has such lame obligations. :) I'll see about "investing".